Man Ray

Untitled III, Man Ray, 1969, Tate

Presented by Curwen Studio through the Institute of Contemporary Prints 1975 Size: image: 581 x 445 mm Medium: Lithograph and screenprint on paper

Untitled, Man Ray, 1923, Art Institute of Chicago: Photography

In late 1921 the American Dada painter and photographer Man Ray produced his first photograms—photographs made without a camera by placing objects on a sheet of light-sensitive paper, then exposing the arrangement to light. He claimed to have stumbled upon the process, which he dubbed “Rayographs,” by chance; it turned out to be an appropriate method for an artist who looked to accidental and automatic occurrences for inspiration. With unexpected combinations of everyday objects, Rayographs articulated a key Dada interest in homemade, “anti-art” reworkings of industrial and consumer society. Man Ray frequently used translucent items like glass bottles, filmstrips, and feathers, valuing their gradation of tones and illusion of three-dimensionality. “They looked startlingly new and mysterious,” he later wrote. With these cameraless images, photography straddled the line between abstraction and representation. Dada leader Tristan Tzara called them “pure Dada creations.” Julien Levy Collection, Special Photography Acquisition Fund Size: 29.6 × 21.8 cm (image/paper); 53 × 44 cm (mount) Medium: Gelatin silver photogram

Untitled, 1915, Man Ray

Rayograph, Man Ray, 1928, MoMA: Photography

Gift of James Thrall Soby Size: 15 1/2 × 11 5/8" (39.3 × 29.6 cm) Medium: Gelatin silver print

Jacqueline, Man Ray, 1930, MoMA: Photography

Gift of James Thrall Soby Size: 11 1/2 × 8 5/8" (29.1 × 22.7 cm) Medium: Gelatin silver print

Landscape, 1914, Man Ray